Greatest Hits
These shots are the hand-picked best of the thousands of shots I shoot per event I attend. Some of these are picked because of the action they illustrate, others for the story they tell, others because I happen to like them, and still others simply because I wanted to show them off for reasons I'll explain individually in the text that will accompany each shot. Enjoy!

NEW OCTOBER 2007
Doubles Redux...Again..: Catching double ball breaks isn't something anyone does often, especially me, yes I admit it. This one is from a couple seasons ago and I stumbled across it cleaning off the old laptop. There were three of us paintball picture taker types lined up with our butts pressed firmly against the net at Carolina Paintball Park when this kid came to our tape and decided to try to snap out into a lane securely dominated by an opponent that was out and waiting for him. I don't remember what the others got, but this was mine. Of course, I also got shot in the testicles not long afterward, but if I got pictures like this every time that happned I'd totally armor-up and take 'em for the team.

NEW OCTOBER 2007
Dive Break: Getting a great diving shot is awesome, getting a great shot of a ball breaking on someone's face is pretty sweet too. Getting both is, pretty awesome...ly...sweet. I knew he was coming to the snake because the snake happened to be a great one on this particular field layout, and people had been fighting over it and trying to dominate it all day. So I positioned myself accordingly and trusted that my patience would be rewarded. I'm happy to report, well, look at it.

NEW OCTOBER 2007
DraXxuS: The question has often been put to me; how the heck does DraXxuS cram all of that paint into each ball anyway? As long as I've worked with and/or shot the paint, I always assumed it was an urban legend, but having seen this I can only assume I'd just gotten used to it. Now even I wonder...how the heck DOES DraXxuS cram all that paint into each ball? I'll fire an email up the chain of command and let everyone know, assuming they don't tell me it's some kind of trade secret.

NEW AUGUST 2007
Gas Prices: If you've paid at the pump any time since Katrina, I think you'll know why I wasn't sure if it was irony or poetic justice when I saw that the "S" has burned out on this gas station sign, leaving us with a statement about where we might be going. Kinda makes me want a hybrid.

NEW AUGUST 2007
Jen: I thought the sun coming through our living room window caught Jen just right, so I tried to go and gather up my camera, 2.8 IS USM lens and tripod without disturbing her too much. I don't know if it's art, but I think it's beautiful. Or maybe that's just her.

NEW AUGUST 2007
Fear: I know fear when I see it. I'm petitioning Webster's so that the next time you look up "Fear" in the dictionary, this is the picture you see.

NEW AUGUST 2007
Cole: How Cole managed to get so far up the field he had to turn around to shoot this guy across the field I'll never know. Maybe he's just sneaky like that. What I'll also never know is how this poor guy survived this assassination. Mathematically it goes like this:
Ramping + Back of Someone's Head = Bad

NEW AUGUST 2007
Colt: I'm not sure what impressed me more about Colt; his aggressive bursts of speed as he explodes up the field, or his ability not to flinch when shot in the back of the head. Both are impressive. On top of all that Colt just happens to be a great guy and a fun paintball player to watch, one of those guys XBall was made for.

NEW AUGUST 2007
Gonna Hurt: Do you ever look at something as it's happening, almost as if it were in slow-motion, and say "this is gonna hurt"? I did. For illustrative purposes I decided not to crop out his shadow, to show just how far off the ground he was. Let's just say if he were an airliner, they'd have told him to go around and try again.

MARCH 2007
Flag: When Ron Green put his dress greens on and brought an American flag onto the field at the first NXL All Star Game last year, he did it because when they played the National Anthem at the first of the three games, there was no flag and nobody knew where to look. A regular paintball player and a good friend, it was inspiring to see a paintball player step up and remind us all that it's still OK to be patriotic in this country.


MARCH 2007
Cut-Throat Ball: When Jimmy Saraiva, long-respected as a great pro player for Detroit Strange, drew his barrel across his neck in front of the East and West Coast teams at the first-ever NXL All Star game in front of thousands of fans, I remember thinking that it took balls the size of church bells. Must be tough to play dragging those around all the time.

MARCH 2007
Chrono Please: Look on the bright side. It definitely won't break in your gun.

MARCH 2007
Gridlock Execution: At the 2006 PSP MAO, Gridlock was playing on their home turf in front of home-town fans, and though they may not have won the event, they extracted a terrible toll on those who challenged them at home. I've never seen someone's head literally blown off their shoulders in a paintball game until then. The hard part was gathering his skull up afterwards.

Doubles: I remember a time when getting ONE ball break in a photograph was a significant experience. Now if there isn't paint shattering off of everything in the frame, in perfect focus, nobody wants to look at it and nobody wants to print it. I always wondered what would be next and in Las Vegas last year I found out, when I caught this shot of one of the guys from the Stoned Assassins taking it in the head courtesy of Bobby's Ironmen. As if the ball breaking off the poor guy's head wasn't enough, another ball broke off of the other guy's paintball gun at the same time.

Doubles Redux: At a 2004 CFOA event I managed to prove that getting two ball breaks in the same picture wasn't a fluke (at least for me) when I got this one. This time, however, both ball breaks (and a bounce if you look carefully enough) are on the same person. The guy was breaking to the left tape on a small field, ran through a stream of paint and caught a couple. This was the first event at which I used my new Canon 2.8, IS USM 200 millimeter lens and I must say I was satisfied. Even with weather conditions that made the day extremely dark and somewhat dreary, I was able to capture crisp, clear images whlie players were in motion, and never had to use a flash, though all the other photographers there were forced to do so.

Nick: When you tell a guy to gear up with a gun that isn't his, jersey that isn't his and goggles that aren't his only to wade into forty-five degree water in fifty degree weather, then, as if that wasn't enough, to submerge and surge back out, that's cold-hearted. When the guy, who happens to be bigger than you, badder than you and carries a badge that gives him the right to put people like me in jail, actually DOES it...well...that's something else entirely. Friendship? Dedication? Insanity? All of the above? Who knows, but either way, when I sent Nick Rackley into the water he did his job and I waded in and did mine, and now you want a WGP VF-Tactical because of it. Because it rocks? Definitely. Because it shoots far, flat, straight and reliably? Absolutely. Because I made it look awfully good? That too.

Telford: Talk about heart. Rich Telford has been playing paintball at 110 percent for as long as I've known him, in spite of making every joke in the book about back-guys along the way. After a long stint with the Ironmen he and his friends left to form XSV, and there's a team that NOBODY can say hasn't earned every win they have to their credit. What started as some extremely talented individual paintball players playing like individuals has, over the course of the 2004 season, coalesced into a team that, on any given day, can knock anyone off. Alongside players like Nicky Cuba and Matty Marshal, XSV have fought, scraped and clawed their way to the top of both professioanl seven-man and X-Ball, and they should be proud. As for this picture, Rich came out of the penalty box and into one of the Naughty Dogs' guns, knowing full-well that when he flung that net aside he was about to get blasted. That's heart. Me? I probably would have stayed in the box.

Dogs: I seem to have a knack for befriending great paintball players named Tyler. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Hanging around people like Tyler Humphrey and Tyler McClusky is what helps me get these great shots. In this game at the PSP Nemacolin event, Tyler was in the snake against XSV, when one of them came down the line to get him. Since I was shooting with a 200mm lens, I couldn't get the whole thing, so all I could do was focus on Tyler and hope for the best. The Dogs went on to win the game and I got a pretty good shot, so I don't think it turned out too bad for any of us...except maybe Tyler.

Duder: Duder is one heck of a ball player. He's also getting to be a tough guy now that Rob and the team are getting in shape. For a guy his size he can fold himself up into those small NXL bunkers amazingly well, and his gun skills enable him to shoot his way out of most of the intense situations in which he finds himself. He and the rest of Trauma look good in their new 2004 jerseys, debuted in Orlando where I shot this picture. Those DM4's the team shoot are absolute machine guns, as seen here by the ball just leaving the barrel as I snapped this shot. If Duder and the rest of Trauma are already this good at this age with this much season left for them to get better, I think it's time the rest of the NXL worked harder to stay ahead, or they seriously consider slashing Trauma's rental van tires before their matches, as it may be the only way to stave off a North Carolina smackdown.

Landing In Vegas: The London Tigers are by all accounts a great bunch of guys. What I like most about them is that win, lose or draw, they're not afraid to throw their bodies around to make a play, and that makes for good entertainment, good paintball and good pictures. When they came over to America to play in the NPPL Super Seven event in Las Vegas, their style of play was no different, as they dove into bunkers and over snakes and generally made good use of the nice turf the NPPL had found for us in the middle of the desert. Their custom CSG jerseys aren't too tough on the eyes, either.

Tyler: Tyler Humphrey is one fun player to watch play the game. Playing for NXL franchise Trauma, Tyler throws his body around with almost reckless abandon to get the shot he needs to help his team win games. When he's not too busy doing...whatever it is he does, he guests with a five-man amateur team in the Carolina Field Owners Association, some more friends of mine known as Gridlock. At the CFOA event in China Grove, North Carolina last year over at Carolina Paintball Park, I happened to be on his tapeline when he moved out to a standup and ended up in a gunfight with someone on his wire. Tyler's DM4 was so hot that when he came out to snap at his opponent he shot his own bunker; just as I was snapping what I had planned to be a relatively uncomplicated portrait shot of the star at work. I was as surprised as anyone when I realized I had captured the ball breaking on his bunker only inches from his face as he came out. Even cropped down to this small size it makes for a great shot. This appeared as a full page in Paintball 2Xtremes Magazine.

Andy: Andy Kopcok did his very, very best to avoid the paintballs seen here breaking on his forehead. As he broke out towards the left tape, he saw the stream of paint passing the outside of the bunker he was running around and tried to duck back in, but it was too late and this one smacked him in the forehead during the Pomona, 2004 NXL matches. Andy has definitely been there and done that in paintball, having played for some great teams and alongside some great players but as can be seen here, paint still breaks on him like it does everyone else. As can be clearly seen in the background, Travis Lemanski and JRich had the right tape all taken care of.

Poor Andy: I don't know what it is about Andy and I, we're just now getting to know each other. I love watching him play because after all, if you give him an inch, he'll give you a bruise. However, I don't know what it is or how it happened, but it seems like every time a ball breaks on him, I'm there. You've already seen the great head-shot above, here's a fresher model from the Tampa NPPL 2004, his first event with Infamous after the name change from Miami Effect. In one of their last games, the games leading up to their historic and momentous win against Dynasty in the first NPPL seven-man event they played, I managed to get this shot of Andy playing the Dorito and not quite getting it back in fast enough. I've asked Andy whether he minds me always managing to get paint breaking on him and we've concluded that since every time I do it he wins, we can carry on.

Paxson: Mike did his best to fight off the guy from Strange that came to do him in Pomona but he took a few hits in the process, like the ball breaking off the squeegee in his pant pocket here. Without a doubt the best kept secret in paintball for quite some time, it's great to see a person who is both an amazing paintball player and a great guy finally get recognized for his abilities and sacrifices and play our game on the highest level. When I originally wrote this I said something about where his talents might be in a year or so with great players from Shock around to mold him. I was right. Pound for pound and shot for shot Mikey is one of the best in the world at this time, and just think, I knew him "when."

PROfiler: When Craig Miller and ZBid Migos brought a concern to me, I, as a person who considers himself a devoted friend of those two, felt obliged to assist them. They were unsure as to whether or not their newest product, a green version of their wildly popular PROfiler VForce goggle system, was created in the proper shade of green. While it has already developed what one might call a "cult following" in the competitive ranks, Craig and ZBid hoped that the recreational, woods-playing set might be interested as well, but were unsure as to whether the particular color green they selected could properly afford players in foliated environments the proper camouflage effect. After a few minutes in the great outdoors on a beautiful day, the issue was promptly laid to rest. It's the perfect color. The bad news? They're not getting their green PROfiler back.

Run-Through: I don't know to this day what possessed this kid. I got the word just as the game was getting ready to start that he and his team were going to attempt a run-through in this Saturday afternoon CFOA rookie semifinal game in South Carolina. However, run-through or not, when a player gets hit, he's supposed to stop. When he gets pummelled by several paintballs only two steps out of the start box, he really should reconsider running down the middle of the field, pulling and hanging the flag and shooting a guy or two along the way. Luckily, the head referee on the field that day was Dave Fason from Trauma, and he and I knew exactly what to do. Hopefully a "team-for-one" as it has become known, will teach the lesson well. Either way, I got a great picture out of the deal, as I managed to capture at least two and possibly even three paintballs slaughtering this kid as he lumbered down the field towards fame for all the wrong reasons. I got a couple of armbands, too.

FACES!: Nick Rackley, Shawn Effaminco, Larry Motes, Ronn Stern, Ellis Lay, the entire roster of Authority and quite a few people on the wrong end of my various paintball guns over the last several months will be quick to inform you that thanks to my friend Jeff Krupin, when I actually get a free moment to gear up and PLAY paintball, I try my very best to "shoot faces." In addition, when I coach a team, I now instruct them to shoot someone in the FACE (thanks for the t-shirt Jeff). While I didn't coach team Overload, I DID once coach a good friend of mine who played for that team, Jack, so I can in some extended way be proud of how this amazing team played on the field, and claim that they were obviously taking my advice and shooting people in the FACE. The situation we have here presented itself at the CFOA at Carolina Paintball Park in North Carolina in 2004. I suppose the up-side is that the guy didn't have to bother to check himself, he must have seen the paint going by. The down-side, then, is that he had to go to the dead box.

Freestylin: Riana Dobbins very promptly and efficiently got her new Indian Creek Designs Freestyle to me for review and photography when it was released. In fact it was on its way to me before I was even informed I would be receiving one. Now that's an understanding between friends, ladies and gentlemen. To that end, when the new Freestyle arrived I felt obligated to take care of her in the same way she had taken care of me, so in the spirit of punctuality and friendship I immediately set to work photographing this new piece of equipment. It proved to be as photogenic as it was impressive on the field of play, and as I twisted and turned the item attempting to capture its features in the best possible manner, I was able to get in close with my 50mm Canon Macro lens and snap this picture of the Freestyle's trigger and its various adjustment screw holes. Not bad for a quick shoot the same afternoon I got the piece, which leads me to believe that it is often motivation, rather than carefully orchestrated cooperation between the best equipment and circumstances, which yields the best results.

Top Choice: The members of Top Choice Paintball that are in Iraq better be careful and the ones here at home better shoot some more faces. During the CFOA extravaganza (I love that word) in Myrtle Beach at Adventure Beach Paintball last year I grabbed this shot almost by accident. He was at the fifty and the opposition was bearing down on him, and to be totally honest I was waiting for someone to come over and stick a barrel in his forehead. It didn't play out that way and as they ran around him, I shot a series of him taking one in the face, turning around and trying to get off the field. As he left, they gave him a little extra "love" to the pack and I happened to get a shot of it. Sometimes the best things in life are impromptu.

Heavily "Armed:" I had a great time at the Clemson, South Carolina Automags.org day. With people like the legendary Tom Kaye, "Manike" and Clare Benavides in attendance along with "Doobie," Trina, CFOA Promoter and President Larry Motes and myself, the day was sure to be a blast. We played a little tournament and then a few games of "attack and defend" that were more reminiscent of the first twenty minutes of "Saving Private Ryan" than anything paintball-related, at least when Larry, Tom, Manike and I were at the top of the hill. The chance to shoot it up with people like the aforementioned and a bunch more great people out to have a good time is one I'll always remember, as much for the paint-slinging as for the sharp stick that got wedged into my eye at the end of the day that put me in the hospital that night. But don't worry, I had my priorities in order...I pulled the stick out, went to dinner, had fun with the gang, was interviewed for a DVD of the event and then went to the hospital. The good news is, the eye is all healed up and the party was worth it.

Rage: These guys have been playing hard core paintball since practically the beginning of time. One of those teams that has been there and done that for longer than most current players can remember, Rage, from Florida, has been a regular on the professional circuit for years. Their latest roster is just as intense and ready to rumble as anything the old team ever fielded, and these guys are willing to go down the field and put it on anyone at the drop of a hat. Any hat. While in Tampa at the NPPL in 2004, I ended up on the same side of the field as a run-through that ended the Rage/Ton Tons game, and while it went down I caught this shot of Hector putting one on the back of this Ton Tons player, with the ball breaking off of him and into the air between them. I enjoyed shooting pictures of the Ton Tons in 2004 for the same reason my friend Sean Connelly did; they were not only good players but their jerseys were extremely bright and colorful and made for great shots. However, in this situation, it took a slight addition of color (pink) thanks to team Rage to make this shot what it is.

Lasoya: I think Ed Poorman put it best when he said "what do you say about a guy like Lasoya..." in the great Division One film "Push." Ed went on to say that Chris Lasoya "...can break a game open by himself," and other various things that have proven true time and again over the years. While Chris is now playing both seven-man and Open XBall with Infamous, it struck me when I watched him play XBall for the first time that it was practically designed for a player like him. XBall is a game in which great individual achievement and the willingness to use aggression to become unstoppable can win points and entire matches, and these traits have been the halmarks of Chris Lasoya's play since the heyday of Avalanche at the turn of the century. Love him or hate him and no matter how you feel about him off the field, one has no choice but to respect him when behind the facemask, as he is capable of shredding any player to ribbons and somehow manages to look stylish doing it. I took this shot at the Pomona PSP event in 2004, as Chris headed towards me in a move to the left tape. The squeegee holding on for dear life trailing behind him made it a nice shot illustrating some action.

HELLO: While often the best way to learn something is to do so the hard way, the hard way often proves to be the most painful way of learning anything. While Top Choice went on to win this particular tournament, the CFOA at Carolina Paintball Park of China Grove, this particular player was taught the hard way that loading with one's paintball gun pointed down with one's hand wrapped around the barrel could be considered poor execution, especially when the player is doing so at the fifty-yard line "cheese" bunker. While the gold trophy eased his pain, mine was somewhat longer lived, as I was literally less than five feet from these two when they decided to interact, as can be seen by the proximity and lack of focus of the player in the foreground, as this was shot with a 70-300mm lens at the near-end. Thusly, when all of each teams' other players turned to shoot our way, I caught about thirty paintballs about the FACE (see above) chest, arms, neck and of course the pre-requisite camera shot, which of course simply HAD to break precisely at the point where my battery grip mates with the body of the Canon 10D I had at the time, requiring me to dismantle the camera to clean it. Was it worth it? Check the issue of Paintball 2Xtremes this appeared in, count the pieces of shell breaking off of his hand and regulator, and let me know.

Dogs Vs. Dynasty: Talk about head to head. When Ryan Greenspan went to the Dog's center roller in a point between the two great teams in Open XBall action in Pomona, everyone knew it was going to be intense. I didn't take my camera off the situation and I was rewarded with this shot, the second in a three-shot series, of the gunfight that ensued. Ryan, in an example of what one of the world's best front players does, stayed small, stayed tight and kept his gun up, ready for what he knew was coming, while his teammates demonstrated precisely how to keep a front player alive. The second Mark came over the top he took a few to the gun and mask, seen here by the incoming GAP paintballs and the pink paint breaking off his hand and gun.
The Cover: If this one looks a little familiar, it should. It was the cover of Paintball 2Xtremes Magazine. I got this one in Pomona during the Legacy/Ironman match a while back, a game that proved to be intense and played from the heart by both teams. As practice buddies from California, these teams knew how to play one another and were capable of shutting one-another down at any given time, so the winning and losing came down to heart and pure individual achievement on the field, like a great sport should. Legacy almost got their first win in this one, and might have had a better shot at it had four of their DM4's not been confiscated in this match alone. In all fairness the Ironmen lost one of their DM4's to trigger bounce in this match as well. Either way, a great match, a great shot, and a great cover.

Bea: People have friends in life that they come to count on like family, and people have friends in life that truly BECOME family. I'm proud to say that's what's happened with Bea Youngs and I. I'll never forget the first time I met her, even though I was already supposedly "someone" in paintball, I was scared to death to talk to her. She was the embodiment of everything "cool" in the sport. An amazingly talented DJ, a promoter, a performer and now a paintball player who can hold her own against anyone and shoot almost everyone as much as they could ever shoot her, Bea is talented in more ways than I think even she realizes. This girl does everything in paintball, from playing seven-person ball with the team she owns, Destiny, teaching at paintball camps, promoting paintball on national television like Junkyard Wars and the most popular sports show in Canada and writing for Paintball 2Xtremes Magazine, to running both her site, Beayoungs.com. This girl is truly a renaissance woman to be respected in any aspect of her life, and the best part of it all is that through all her great accomplishments, she is still an approachable, kind, loving human being ready to talk about anything with anyone. If you don't know her, you're missing out. Thank you Bea, for your friendship and inspiration.

Lisa: I've said it in print and I'll say it again here on my own turf, Lisa is amazing. You can look at her, see the outward physical beauty that we all know and stop there if you'd like, or you can put forth the effort to take a second look and realize that there is much, much more to this model-turned-ball player. Now a regular on the roster of the Femmes Fatale, Lisa is not afraid to go out and have a great time with the guys and girls during the night then get up early and head to the field to shoot and be shot with the best of them the next day. A dedicated woman who is devoted to her friends and family in a way that more people ought to be, we all knew that when she showed up paintball started to LOOK a lot better, but I'm proud to say unequivocally that the sport's heart and soul grew when she joined us, and I for one hope she sticks around for the long haul.